Philadelphia Yearly Meeting

of the Religious Society of Friends

Peace & Social Justice

National Council of Churches Statement on George Floyd

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Philadelphia Yearly Meeting participates on the board of the National Council of Churches (NCC) along with 36 other religious communities and Friends United Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. NCC was formed in the 1950’s and PYM’s General Secretary is tasked to connect with and serve this larger faith community’s board.

Overall the NCC serves 45 million people in over 100,000 congregations in the United States. Our shared fellowship expands our yearly meeting’s capacity to engage with other churches on issues of national importance to Faith communities. Below is their May 29th Statement on George Floyd: [Read more…] about National Council of Churches Statement on George Floyd

Youth Call for Action in Support of Immigrants

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Providence Meeting Middle School Friends’ concern for immigrants began when we saw pictures of immigrants on the news and how they were being treated at the US Mexico border. That led to our first fundraiser and learning more about the immigrant situation. We heard that families were being separated, and knew we needed to learn more about migrant life at the border and how we could help. [Read more…] about Youth Call for Action in Support of Immigrants

Diversity & Equity in Our Meetings

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What Happened at the Recent Thread Gathering on Diversity and Equity in Our Meetings and the World, and Next Steps

The February 2020 PYM Thread Gathering on Diversity and Equity in Our Meetings and the World was a day-long workshop that explored the spiritual foundation of the work of healing racism.  Facilitated by Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting members .O and Dana Reinhold, and Francis Elling, a member of Unity Meeting and attender at Ujima Friends Peace Center and CPMM, the workshop focused in particular on building our personal readiness to transform as we uncover what is needed for our Meetings to become truly equitable and inclusive.

[Read more…] about Diversity & Equity in Our Meetings

Threshing on Membership Report

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View a downloadable/PDF version of the report here.

Introduction
The bulk of this report is made of minutes of exercise taken by PYM Recording Clerk, Jim Herr. The minutes review the proceedings of the day. Following the minutes of exercise, the report contains a transcription of collections of “advice to the yearly meeting” in response to several queries that participants wrote down in small groups. Find in Appendix A the advance documents that were provided ahead of the threshing session.

[Read more…] about Threshing on Membership Report

Iran Crisis: Conference Call Recap

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On January 28th, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s General Secretary, Chrisite Duncan-Tessmer facilitated an Iran Crisis zoom call with support from the Middle East Collaborative. With over 20 Friends joining the call, we were delighted to welcome Friends from the yearly meeting, a Friend from Texas, and others from the Middle East Collaborative.

After worship and a brief welcome, Jim Fine, of the Middle East Collaborative and member of Bristol Meeting, provided members of the call with an informative overview on the history of Iran relations with the United States and other Middle East countries, relationships in the Middle East, and where things stand currently. Please read Jim Fine’s bio to learn about his extensive work on Middle East relations.

[Read more…] about Iran Crisis: Conference Call Recap

Distinguished leader and South African Friend, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, is teaching at Haverford College

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One of the wonderful things about going to Meeting for Worship each week is that you never know who will be there. This January, Haverford Meeting welcomed two distinguished South African Friends, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge and her husband Jeremy Routledge. Sitting in the sunny corner of the Meeting house, they brought a bit of South African Quaker Spirit to our chilly winter.  Nozizwe was first elected to Parliament in 1994, and later served her nation as Deputy Minister of Defense (1999-2004), then Deputy Minister of Health (2004-2007) and finally, Deputy speaker of the National Assembly (2008-2009).

She fought for scientifically grounded AIDS treatment under Mbeki, and has been similarly active in the struggle against sex trafficking.

Walter Sullivan, Director of Quaker Affairs at Haverford, said that Nozizwe is in the region to teach a spring semester course: After the Sunset: Lessons in Transition to Peace – The South African Example. She is also serving the community as a Friend in Residence. The course she is teaching will ‘cover the issues, theories and methodologies of nonviolent and violent struggles, peace negotiations, transitional justice, post conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding by looking at South Africa as a case study.’

The course will also examine the roles played by Quakers in ending the South African conflict and supporting a negotiated peace process.

PYM Online will be interviewing Nozizwe for our web news a little later in the spring, after she and Jeremy are settled, and she’s taken up her Haverford College teaching responsibilities.

Yesterday  Nozizwe emailed us that she is “excited to be a visiting scholar and Friend in Residence at Haverford–where I received an honorary doctorate in 2008. Yesterday, I visited the Quaker Collections Reading Room with Jeremy where we plan to spend time delving into Quaker history and being inspired.”

The history of Quakers in South Africa is itself inspiring, and we are lucky to have Nozizwe and Jeremy here to make their South African Quaker experience relevant to us, in the Philadelphia region, as we head into the 2020 elections.

Don’t miss Nozizwe and Jeremy’s Haverford College talk on February 24th from 4:30-6:00 PM. Titled Race Power and Quakerism in South Africa, it is sure to be interesting.

Ujima Friends Peace Center, Updates

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Ujima Friends Peace Center is a Quaker worship community consisting primarily of Friends of African descent. Last year, our Quaker Life Council granted Ujima Friends fifteen thousand dollars to help with their rent and repeated the grant this year. It is the least that could be done to embody the truth that Ujima Friends Peace Center is part of our wider yearly meeting community. A story about Ujima Friends was published on the PYM website.

[Read more…] about Ujima Friends Peace Center, Updates

Newtown Meeting Gun Violence Awareness Day

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Newtown Friends Meeting played a pivotal role in supporting Heeding God’s Call and other faith communities in putting on a Gun Violence Awareness Day. Read more about it here. If you’re interested in organizing something similar or other work around gun violence prevention, contact Heeding God’s Call Executive Director Bryan Miller, bryanheeding@gmail.com.

Help End Gun Violence as a Meeting Community

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A faith-based organization called Heeding God’s Call can help Quaker meetings across Philadelphia Yearly Meeting with reducing and eliminating gun violence. If your meeting is looking for an avenue to make a difference in this public health crisis, we hope you’ll be in touch. There are several ways to do so:

We interviewed Brad Sheeks about his experience organizing the Gun Violence Awareness Day in Newtown, and this is what he said:

I got started with planning a Gun Violence Awareness Day event as a result of a talk last May by Bryan Miller, Executive Director of Heeding God’s Call to End Violence at Newtown Friends Meeting. Bryan suggested the idea of having such an event in Newtown. It seemed that this was a good thing to do, and I had the time and energy to do it.

I made phone calls to about fifty faith communities and organizations in Bucks County, telling them about the idea and inviting them to attend an informational meeting. Twenty people, representing thirteen organizations came to the meeting.  Bryan Miller explained the basic idea of a Gun Violence Awareness Day. He offered to be the primary sponsor. We agreed to start discussions in our home faith communities about co-sponsorship as a way of witnessing to the community about our concerns for reducing gun violence.

We agreed to set the November 10th as the date for the Gun Violence Awareness Day event itself. 

So far eight faith communities and organizations have approved co-sponsorship of the Gun Violence Awareness Day, set for November 10th.

 The service Awareness Day will feature survivors of gun violence, music, responsive readings, and prayers. Informational tables will display opportunities for taking further action about reducing gun violence. There will be a witness walk on and around State Street, leading to the church were a service will be held.

If you have questions or concerns about how this event fits into the wider question of reducing gun violence, contact Bryan Miller directly by phone at 856-371-3038 or by email at bryanheeding@gmail.com as well as visiting the Heeding God’s Call website https://www.heedinggodscall.org/

 I am available to others who might like to consult on how to organize a Gun Violence Awareness Day event.

Church World Service Ration Challenge

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Church World Service (CWS) is launching a new Ration Challenge Campaign at rationchallengeusa.org.

Ration Challenge is a fundraising and awareness building campaign that invites participants to commit to live for one week (the week of World Refugee Day) on the same rations that Syrian refugees receive in a camp in Jordan. Leading up to the challenge, participants ask family, friends and colleagues to sponsor them by donating to their campaign. Participants earn rewards as they raise money to help supplement their rations (fruit, veg, tea, spices etc.). The money raised goes to provide food, medical care, and education to Syrian refugees in Jordan via Act for Peace (30%) and to support CWS programs for refugees and displaced families around the world (70%).

Here’s how you can get involved:

  • Share a post about the Ration Challenge on Facebook or Twitter
  • Invite your networks to join/sign up via email
  • Do you know any “influencers?” pro-refugee contacts with more than 20,000 followers on social media—Let us know if you’d be willing to reach out them to get them involved in the challenge. We will help with outreach and follow up.
  • Take a short version of the Challenge (one or two days) and write about your experience
  • Sign up the take the challenge yourself the week of June 16-23
  • Work with CWS to write an opinion piece highlighting the challenges facing refugee families and support for the Ration Challenge

We hope to hear from some of you about getting involved as the Ration Challenge gets underway. Please let us know if you decide to sign up yourself. Thanks for your support!

Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is a member of Church World Service, and we occasionally post announcements and invitations from CWS on our website.